The rising levels of manmade greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere and their resulting impact on climate is now one of the single biggest technological and environmental challenges facing the world. This makes intensified monitoring of these gases more critical than ever in order to better quantify the role of the numerous natural and manmade sources, sinks and buffers involved in the cycles of GHGs. It also enables us to objectively audit GHG fluxes at the factory, city, country and continental level. Such objective auditing is ultimately essential to facilitate effective enforcement and compliance with any regulations, laws, treaties and trading agreements based on GHG metrics such as carbon footprints.

Measurement of greenhouse gases released from soil and water surface forms an important part of climate change study. Microbial activity in the soil or for instance the melting of permafrost releases greenhouse gases such as Methane and nitrous oxide N2O into the atmosphere. Measurement of the concentration for these gases inside an open-bottom soil chamber placed on the soil over time tells the emission rate (flux) per chamber footprint area.

In the early 1990s no appropriate and comprehensive technical solution had been available for waste gas treatment in the semiconductor industry. Back then as well as today many industrial and research production procedures use process gases and generate waste gases. These waste gases, considered greenhouse gases, are toxic and/or highly flammable and very often pose a significant risk to production facilities and the environment. The semiconductor industry, for instance, uses perfluorocarbons, whose global warming potential is extremely high and therefore requires an efficient waste gas treatment. Combining and transporting different gases into a fab’s central waste gas system might produce highly flammable and highly explosive gaseous mixtures, which in the past has occasionally caused the total loss of entire production facilities. Particles contained within gases may also cause exhaust blockages. To eliminate these risks, process waste gases need to be treated at the “Point-of-Use” (POU) where harmful exhausts are abated immediately.

Closed chamber gas flux measurements can be made with Protea FTIR analysers to allow researchers in the field of atmospheric gas analysis from agricultural and livestock to measure evolved gases such as N2O, CO2, CO, NH3, and CH4. Nitrous oxide (N2O) and Methane (CH4) emissions from soil, plant and livestock are especially important gases to measure, given their high potential as greenhouse gases (GHGs). NH3, whilst not a greenhouse gas on the scale of N2O, CH4and CO2, is a major emission from agricultural, such as after the spreading of liquid manure, and steps are required to measure and reduce the NH3 emissions and the effects they have on the ecosystem.

The aluminium industry is the major source of perflurocarbon (PFC) emissions to the atmosphere, which are a major contributor to global warming. PFCs have greenhouse gas effects up to 10000 times that of CO2. Emissions have been reduced over the last 20 years, but further reductions are harder to achieve as all the mechanisms for PFC production are not known. In order to better understand the production of PFC on an industrial level, laboratory studies have been carried out using a small scale cell.

Ventilation Air Methane (VAM) is a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) released by coal or mineral mining operations, it is also commonly known as Coal Mine Methane (CMM). The air pollutants from this process have a global warming potential 21 times greater than carbon dioxide, which is another well known GHG. As alternative energy technologies have developed, methane is increasingly used to generate electricity and heat. Landfills and mines represent two of the most abundant sources, however reports indicate that more than 50% of all VAM is exhausted from mine ventilation systems and remains unutilized.

The automotive industry is one of the most prominent drivers of progress and economic growth. Its products secure worldwide mobility but also account for a significant part of greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts.

Retail companies increasingly set themselves apart from competitors by displaying responsible actions. Meanwhile the individual energy and carbon management are only a part of a sustainability strategy, where the indirect environmental impacts and greenhouse gas emissions through the entire supply chain become more and more important.

In research and teaching, integral consideration and analysis belong to the important applied methods in various areas. Life cycle analysis and their methodic development, greenhouse gas calculations as well as new upcoming topics like water footprints are types of problems, which are not only in industry-oriented research of great significance.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is an emerging method of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of power plants. In a process called ‘scrubbing’, the carbon dioxide emissions can be absorbed into chemical solvents consisting of amines or carbonates. Scrubbing is a well-established method of carbon capture, with virtually every commercial CO2 capture plant in operation using this process. In the process, the first step is the removal of impurities from the flue gas, such as hydrocarbons and oxides of both nitrogen and sulfur (NOx and SOx). Next the purified gas is passed through an absorption column filled with the chemical scrubbing solvent. The solvent reacts with the carbon dioxide and selectively absorbs it from the gas stream. When CO2-rich solvent is heated, the carbon dioxide is released as a nearly pure gas.

With its expertise in calculating and managing emissions data, CERC offers a range of services to assess greenhouse gas emissions, from determining the carbon footprint of a single industrial process, to compiling a greenhouse gas inventory for a whole geographical area.

CERC uses methods and emission factors laid out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Emissions from transport, industrial, heating and agricultural activities are calculated and stored using the EMIT software package.

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